Southampton beat Albion 2-0 in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday evening.
The Saints secured all three points with goals either side of half-time from Ryan Fraser and substitute David Brooks.
Carlos Corberán’s team are next in action this Tuesday, travelling to Plymouth Argyle.
The boss named Semi Ajayi and Grady Diangana on the bench after their return from AFCON duty - and he also made one change to his XI, bringing in Jed Wallace.
But Corberán was sent off inside seven minutes, the referee showing him a red card for interfering in play by allegedly touching the ball before it had left the field.
And to make matters worse, the Baggies then went a goal down. Southampton crossed towards the far post, where Fraser was there to fire a controlled volley home.
The Saints controlled much of the opening half-hour, though were put on the back foot during the first-half’s final 15 minutes.
In a flurry of action, John Swift curled narrowly wide, Okay Yokuslu saw a header cleared off the line and Albion had a strong penalty shout turned down when Darnell Furlong’s volley seemed to hit a Southampton defender’s arm.
Swift struck a free-kick over as the hosts continued their attempts to draw level - with Tom Fellows, Callum Marshall, Adam Reach and Diangana all coming on too.
Yet it was Southampton who struck next, doubling their advantage around the 73-minute mark via Brooks’ finish at the end of a passing move.
Still Albion looked for a route back, and nearly found it immediately through Yokuslu’s header, somehow saved by goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
However, ultimately they couldn’t find a goal and the Saints secured a victory to take them up to second place in the table.
Albion: Palmer; Furlong, Kipre, Pieters, Townsend; Yokuslu (Chalobah 81), Mowatt; Wallace (Diangana 65), Swift (Marshall 65), Johnston (Reach 65); Thomas-Asante (Fellows 46).
Substitutes: Griffiths, Ajayi, Pipa, Weimann.
Attendance: 25,066 (1,970)